Scissors
by AdayaSage
Summary: She thought  they liked her better this way...But maybe she was wrong.


Scissors

Sometime long after their home world had been taken by darkness, and just shortly before they met that boy with the key blade…She had been different. So, so different. If you looked at her then, and looked at her now you wouldn't have been able to tell they were from the same place, let alone that they were the same person.

She was young, younger than everybody else, which only made her feel younger and more like a frightened child. She was twelve when they left their world. And now they came to rest in this one. One that was perfect for those who had lost their homes. Traverse Town.

Yuffie sighed as she walked along the ever black street, it was just a week until she turned fifteen. She couldn't imagine spending another birthday without her family, her real family. Not this makeshift one of her, and Aerith, Squall (he went by Leon now), and Cid. The one where she had a mother and a father and brothers and sisters. How had she managed to get away while they had not?

She kicked a stray can laying on the ground. She remembered what she was like before, when they first got here she was still herself.

Bubbly, hyper, happy, Yuffie. And it seemed to make everybody feel just a little bit better. But soon after she seen how the others acted.

Squall was so ashamed that he hadn't protected his loved ones that he changed his name, Aerith was so much quieter and she didn't smile near as often. Cid, you could never tell how things affected him. But every now and again Yuffie was sure she seen his resolve break as he shed a few tears. After seeing all that, Yuffie thought she should be that way too. So she acted more grown-up, more like Aerith, with her gentle smiles and lady-like ways. Yuffie hated it.

It seemed like everyone liked the new her, the older, more refined, less hyper her.

_Do they really?_ Came that little voice inside. The one that used to make her believe nothing was impossible. She had shut it up more often as of late, not wanting to listen. Things were too hard to hang onto hopes like that anymore.

"They do…" She whispered to herself, trying with all her might to convince herself that it was true. It hurt too much to be happy, how could she be after all they had suffered? All the loss and pain was too much to bear.

_That's why they need you to be yourself. You give them freedom, help them to remember the good and the light even now. _

Yuffie shook her head, that couldn't be true. She brushed her long black hair out of her dark eyes. She hadn't cut it since they came, not feeling the need to look so childish anymore.

_Child, hear the words, they need you as you are, not as you are trying to make yourself. They need you how I made you. Hyper, happy, optimistic. If you won't help to light the way how will they ever make their way home?_

Yuffie jumped up through her bedroom window and stepped in front of the mirror.

Maybe, just maybe they did need her. Not the Aerith wannabe her, no the Great Ninja, Yuffie. Maybe they really needed that her. And if she could make Squall smile just once, Aerith truly laugh, and Cid think about something fun, maybe it'd be worth it. Maybe if she continued to hope and believe, they would too. Yuffie looked at the mirror again, seeing that girl who looked so much like Aerith with black hair, she was even wearing a dress! Yuck. Yuffie took out some of the clothes she had made herself, perfect ninja gear and changed into the yellow and green clothes. She smiled as she looked over herself. But there was still something that needed fixing…

With a bright, Yuffie-like grin she grabbed the scissors off of her dresser and started to cut. With each lock of hair that fell to the floor she felt herself shedding another bad memory, another bitter emotion.

It took forever to get the scissors to work with her, and by the time she was done it looked like a black cat had exploded in front of her mirror. But it was worth it.

She looked in the mirror, no longer seeing the mini-Aerith, no. Now she saw Yuffie, the Great Ninja. And now she knew without a doubt that it was time to stand, to start believing, and to stop hiding behind gentle smiles and pretty dresses. Ger friends needed her now. That was all that mattered.

As time passed on, her hope seemed to work, when there was news of a key blade master, ready and willing to help save the world.


End file.
